All The Calm and Calamity Exhibit (Photo by Nathan Shubert)
The Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound is launching its summer exhibitions featuring the works of the famous artist and the influence of technology.
Curator of Exhibitions and Collections Shannon Bingeman says the museum has its CTRL+ALT+DELETE and Only Human exhibitions available, as well as All The Calm and Calamity, a Thomson exhibit focused on the artist’s work during World War One.
“I think when a lot people, when they think about Tom’s work, they think about his serine paintings of Algonquin Park, but they forget that at the time when he painted those, the world was in crisis. That was always going on in the back of his mind as he was painting those landscapes,” says Bingeman. “Although it is historical and it is looking at what happened during the first World War, it’s also, I think, really relevant to today. We are all living through uncharted territories.”
The other exhibits take a look at how technology has integrated itself into every day life, with one artist using artificial intelligence and the other exhibit exploring how future generations might look back on current technology.
“I think that they both explore conversations that are really topical at the moment. Our exhibitions that explore the digital landscape, they look at sort of the ethical questions surrounding the rise of artificial intelligence and also the way that technology mirrors the natural world and extracts from it. Here at the TOM, a lot of our conversations are often centred around the landscape and climate change, and so those exhibitions definitely bring that conversation forward,” says Bingeman.
She hopes attendees will leave the exhibit with some optimism, critical reflection, and inspiration.
Both the CTRL+ALT+DELETE and the Only Human exhibitions will end Oct. 4, while the All The Calm And Calamity exhibit will run until Jan. 10, 2026.
